COVID-19 Information & Updates

Latest Updates & Information

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UTMB Health developed this website to share information about Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) and available vaccines. Please explore these pages and linked resources to inform yourself, minimize risks, get vaccinated, and if needed, get care for COVID-19.

COVID-19 Positive CountsGalveston County by Collected Date

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UTMB: The history and future of combatting infectious diseases

1899 Medical Department heads smallpox quarantine camp on Galveston’s East BeachUTMB’s expertise in infectious diseases research and clinical care dates back to the 19th and 20th centuries, when the university took the lead in combatting such diseases as Yellow Fever and bubonic plague on the Texas Gulf Coast. By the 21st century, UTMB had built an unparalleled team of world-renowned experts in new and re-emerging diseases, from influenza to Ebola and Zika. This includes research on the diagnosis, prevention and treatment of coronaviruses, such as the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19 illness.

Today, UTMB Health is home to highly trained physicians, nurses and other caregivers well-prepared to care for patients with infectious diseases. And, thanks to our unusually strong research expertise in coronaviruses and our unique facilities, UTMB is also at the forefront of the emergency response to the COVID-19 outbreak and is already working to understand the disease as well as to develop vaccines and therapeutics.

UTMB Program Strengths

  • web-ihiiUTMB's world-class infectious disease research programs are breaking new ground in understanding the nature of infectious diseases, and are working to translate new research concepts into products aimed at controlling emerging infectious diseases and mitigating their effects on society. The programs of the Institute for Human Infections and Immunity (IHII) are the hub of infectious disease research at UTMB. Read about UTMB research on COVID-19.

  • GNL worker The Galveston National Laboratory—one of only two National Laboratories dedicated to the safe study of infectious threats to health at all levels of containment.

  • A Biocontainment Care Unit, adjacent to the university’s Level I trauma center in Galveston. The unit, made possible with federal and state funding, is designed to provide the highest-level of containment and highest-quality care for patients with certain infectious diseases. While COVID-19 illness does not usually require that level of clinical containment, the BCU provides additional isolation capacity should it be needed. UTMB has six contiguous negative pressure rooms in our BCU, offering an ideal place to provide safe care if called to service. (UTMB also has standard negative pressure rooms where care can be safely provided by staff equipped with proper PPE).
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